Business
Car buyers in Southern California scramble to beat 25% auto tariffs
After getting into a car accident last month, Debbie Boyd held out hope that her Chevy Volt could be repaired.
But the car was declared a total loss on Monday, three days before President Trump’s 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks is set to go into effect.
“It’s like the worst timing imaginable to be buying a car, and the uncertainty is killing me about what’s going to happen and how it’s going to affect prices,” said Boyd, 74, a retired attorney from Mar Vista. “I anticipated driving my car for quite some time, sailing through the tariffs, but now I’m faced smack up against them.”
She rushed to Culver City Toyota on Tuesday.
“I’m going to buy what’s on the lot, the current inventory, just to avoid it,” Boyd said. “Today, tomorrow, whatever they have available is what I will pick from. Obviously I need a car. I just wish it weren’t now.”
Boyd’s anxiety was widely shared among many car buyers in Southern California who were scrambling to make their vehicle purchases before the tariffs kicked in.
The global trade war escalated further Wednesday afternoon, when Trump said during a Rose Garden event that he would impose 10% additional tariffs on all of the nation’s trading partners; some countries will be hit with even higher rates.
Calling it “Liberation Day,” Trump said the day would “forever be remembered as the day that American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.”
Tariff-related price hike estimates vary depending on the vehicle, but most industry experts predict new cars will cost several thousand more.
Erin Keating, an executive analyst at Cox Automotive, expects new vehicle prices to go up by 15% to 20%. On Wednesday, Anderson Economic Group forecast car prices to increase $2,500 to $20,000. Vehicles expected to be hit hardest, the group said, include luxury sedans and SUVs manufactured by Audi, BMW, Jaguar-Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Genesis and Lexus.
With sticker prices expected to surge, many consumers across Southern California are trying to get deals done ahead of the Thursday deadline.
“It is a natural consumer behavior when people see an impending price change to race in and respond accordingly,” said Dominick Miserandino, a retail and consumer analyst and chief executive of Retail Tech Media Nexus.
There is an element of panic contributing to the increase in demand, he said.
“You’re seeing it on a micro scale whenever someone posts online that they found a cheaper place to get eggs,” Miserandino said.
At Culver City Honda, more than a dozen prospective car buyers were milling about the dealership lot or waiting in the lobby for an available sales representative mid-afternoon Tuesday.
“People are just rushing in here like crazy,” sales consultant Carlos Rodriguez said, a trend that began the day after Trump announced the autos tariff on March 26. “We’re used to selling let’s say 10 cars a day; 1743650055 we’re getting into 20s. I know a lot of dealerships are hitting higher numbers.”
Outside, a car shopper named Rochelle was checking out a white CR-V.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” she said. “I’m all for America first, but a lot of us don’t like American cars.”
Roughly half of the 16 million cars, SUVs and light trucks that Americans bought last year were imported, according to the White House. Vehicles in the United States are imported from Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Germany and other countries.
The Trump administration says it is imposing tariffs to strengthen national security and spur the growth of American jobs. Heavily taxing imported cars, the thinking goes, would put pressure on automakers to build manufacturing plants in the U.S.
“America cannot just be an assembler of foreign-made parts — we must become a manufacturing powerhouse that dominates every step of the supply chain of industries that are critical for our national security and economic interests,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.
Tesla cars outside the automaker’s factory in Fremont.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
But building more domestic plants takes years, and some companies are wary of shifting their supply chains to the United States because of regulatory uncertainty, economists said.
The 25% tariff will be applied to imported passenger vehicles (sedans, SUVs, crossovers, minivans and cargo vans) and light trucks, as well as key automobile parts (engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components), with the possibility of expanding the duty to include additional parts if necessary. The tariff on auto parts is set to take effect by May 3.
“President Trump is taking action to protect America’s automobile industry, which is vital to national security and has been undermined by excessive imports threatening America’s domestic industrial base and supply chains,” the White House said.
Car dealerships across Southern California — home to car enthusiasts and one of the nation’s largest auto markets — are unsure about what comes next. Some are preparing for spikes and drops in business as the global trade war plays out.
Rodriguez said Culver City Honda will have to increase prices, but he was hopeful that sales would remain strong as they did during the pandemic despite major supply-chain disruptions that led to skyrocketing car prices.
It’s not just the automotive industry that is contending with tariff tumult. Businesses of all kinds — farmers, home builders, tech companies, winemakers, restaurants and apparel retailers — are reeling from weeks of on-again, off-again confusion as Trump has announced a slew of levies, many of them aimed at the country’s top three trading partners. Some have been imposed, while others have been postponed, modified or reversed.
Bolstering the economy was one of Trump’s promises during the election, and tariffs are a core part of his strategy. He threatened to slap tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on his first day back in office, explaining the decision as a way to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs.
In March, he wrote in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. “doesn’t have Free Trade. We have ‘Stupid Trade.’”
“The Entire World is RIPPING US OFF!!!” he said.
The prolonged back-and-forth has unsettled companies, both those that import goods from abroad and those that sell their products to foreign clients. California’s economy could be especially hard hit because of its heavy reliance on trade with China and Mexico, and because of its position as a global agricultural powerhouse.
Nike is cutting about 1,400 jobs in its operations division, mostly from its technology department, the company said Thursday.
In a note to employees, Venkatesh Alagirisamy, the chief operating officer of Nike, said that management was nearly done reorganizing the business for its turnaround plan, and that the goal was to operate with “more speed, simplicity and precision.”
“This is not a new direction,” Mr. Alagirisamy told employees. “It is the next phase of the work already underway.”
Nike, the world’s largest sportswear company, is trying to recover after missteps led to a prolonged sales slump, in which the brand leaned into lifestyle products and away from performance shoes and apparel. Elliott Hill, the chief executive, has worked to realign the company around sports and speed up product development to create more breakthrough innovations.
In March, Nike told investors that it expected sales to fall this year, with growth in North America offset by poor performance in Asia, where the brand is struggling to rejuvenate sales in China. Executives said at the time that more volatility brought on by the war in the Middle East and rising oil prices might continue to affect its business.
The reorganization has involved cuts across many parts of the organization, including at its headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. Nike slashed some corporate staff last year and eliminated nearly 800 jobs at distribution centers in January.
“You never want to have to go through any sort of layoffs, but to re-center the company, we’re doing some of that,” Mr. Hill said in an interview earlier this year.
Mr. Alagirisamy told employees that Nike was reshaping its technology team and centering employees at its headquarters and a tech center in Bengaluru, India. The layoffs will affect workers across North America, Europe and Asia.
The cuts will also affect staffing in Nike’s factories for Air, the company’s proprietary cushioning system. Employees who work on the supply chain for raw materials will also experience changes as staff is integrated into footwear and apparel teams.
Nike’s Converse brand, which has struggled for years to revive sales, will move some of its engineering resources closer to the factories they support, the company said.
Mr. Alagirisamy said the moves were necessary to optimize Nike’s supply chain, deploy technology faster and bolster relationships with suppliers.
A bill that would have required insurers to offer coverage to homeowners who take steps to reduce wildfire risk on their property died in the Legislature.
The Senate Insurance Committee on Monday voted down the measure, SB 1076, one of the most ambitious bills spurred by the devastating January 2025 wildfires.
The vote came despite fire victims and others rallying at the state Capitol in support of the measure, authored by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), whose district includes the Eaton fire zone.
The Insurance Coverage for Fire-Safe Homes Act originally would have required insurers to offer and renew coverage for any home that meets wildfire-safety standards adopted by the insurance commissioner starting Jan. 1, 2028.
It also threatened insurers with a five-year ban from the sale of home or auto insurance if they did not comply, though it allowed for exceptions.
However, faced with strong opposition from the insurance industry, Pérez had agreed to amend the bill so it would have established community-wide pilot projects across the state to better understand the most effective way to limit property and insurance losses from wildfires.
Insurers would have had to offer four years of coverage to homeowners in successful pilot projects.
Denni Ritter, a vice president of the American Property Casualty Insurance Assn., told the committee that her trade group opposed the bill.
“While we appreciate the intent behind those conversations, those concepts do not remove our opposition, because they retain the same core flaw — substituting underwriting judgment and solvency safeguards with a statutory mandate to accept risk,” she said.
In voting against the bill Sen. Laura Richardson, (D-San Pedro), said: “Last I heard, in the United States, we don’t require any company to do anything. That’s the difference between capitalism and communism, frankly.”
The remarks against the measure prompted committee Chair Sen. Steve Padilla, (D-Chula Vista), to chastise committee members in opposition.
“I’m a little perturbed, and I’m a little disappointed, because you have someone who is trying to work with industry, who is trying to get facts and data,” he said.
Monday’s vote was the fourth time a bill that would have required insurers to offer coverage to so-called “fire hardened” homes failed in the Legislature since 2020, according to an analysis by insurance committee staff.
Fire hardening includes measures such as cutting back brush, installing fire resistant roofs and closing eaves to resist fire embers.
Pérez’s legislation was thought to have a better chance of passage because it followed the most catastrophic wildfires in U.S. history, which damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 structures and killed 31 people.
The bill was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles advocacy group Consumer Watchdog and Every Fire Survivor’s Network, a community group founded in Altadena after the fires formerly called the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.
But it also had broad support from groups such as the California Apartment Association, the California Nurses Association and California Environmental Voters.
Leading up to the fires, many insurers, citing heightened fire risk, had dropped policyholders in fire-prone neighorhoods. That forced them onto the California FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, which offers limited but costly policies.
A Times analysis found that that in the Palisades and Eaton fire zones, the FAIR Plan’s rolls from 2020 to 2024 nearly doubled from 14,272 to 28,440. Mandating coverage has been seen as a way of reducing FAIR Plan enrollment.
“I’m disappointed this bill died in committee. Fire survivors deserved better,” Pérez said in a statement .
Also failing Monday in the committee was SB 982, a bill authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, (D-San Francisco). It would have authorized California’s attorney general to sue fossil fuel companies to recover losses from climate-induced disasters. It was opposed by the oil and gas industry.
Passing the committee were two other Pérez bills. SB 877 requires insurers to provide more transparency in the claims process. SB 878 imposes a penalty on insurers who don’t make claims payments on time.
Another bill, SB 1301, authored by insurance commissioner candidate Sen. Ben Allen, (D-Pacific Palisades), also passed. It protects policyholders from unexplained and abrupt policy non-renewals.
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
Politicians in Washington and the reporters who cover them have an often adversarial relationship.
But on the last Saturday in April, they gather for an irreverent celebration of press freedom and the First Amendment at the Washington Hilton Hotel: The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Hosted by the association, an organization that helps ensure access for media outlets covering the presidency, the dinner attracts Hollywood stars; politicians from both parties; and representatives of more than 100 networks, newspapers, magazines and wire services.
While The Times will have two reporters in the ballroom covering the event, the company no longer buys seats at the party, said Richard W. Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief. The decision goes back almost two decades; the last dinner The Times attended as an organization was in 2007.
“We made a judgment back then that the event had become too celebrity-focused and was undercutting our need to demonstrate to readers that we always seek to maintain a proper distance from the people we cover, many of whom attend as guests,” he said.
It’s a decision, he added, that “we have stuck by through both Republican and Democratic administrations, although we support the work of the White House Correspondents’ Association.”
Susan Wessling, The Times’s Standards editor, said the policy is a product of the organization’s desire to maintain editorial independence.
“We don’t want to leave readers with any questions about our independence and credibility by seeming to be overly friendly with people whose words and actions we need to report on,” she said.
The celebrity mentalist Oz Pearlman is headlining the evening, in lieu of the usual comedy set by the likes of Stephen Colbert and Hasan Minhaj, but all eyes will be on President Trump, who will make his first appearance at the dinner as president.
Mr. Trump has boycotted the event since 2011, when he was the butt of punchlines delivered by President Barack Obama and the talk show host Seth Meyers mocking his hair, his reality TV show and his preoccupation with the “birther” movement.
Last month, though, Mr. Trump, who has a contentious relationship with the media, announced his intention to attend this year’s dinner, where he will speak to a room full of the same reporters he often derides as “enemies of the people.”
Times reporters will be there to document the highs, the lows and the reactions in the room. A reporter for the Styles desk has also been assigned to cover the robust roster of after-parties around Washington.
Some off-duty reporters from The Times will also be present at this late-night circuit, though everyone remains cognizant of their roles, said Patrick Healy, The Times’s assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust.
“If they’re reporting, there’s a notebook or recorder out as usual,” he said. “If they’re not, they’re pros who know they’re always identifiable as Times journalists.”
For most of The Times’s reporters and editors, though, the evening will be experienced from home.
“The rest of us will be able to follow the coverage,” Mr. Stevenson said, “without having to don our tuxes or gowns.”
-
News7 minutes agoAfter 2 failed votes, Mike Johnson unveils new plan to extend key U.S. spy powers
-
New York2 hours agoShould a Straight Person Represent Stonewall’s City Council District?
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoBlake Miller has high floor, big upside, says Lions GM Brad Holmes
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoHighway 1 closure in San Francisco expected to snarl Sunset traffic all weekend
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoHow UCF EDGE Malachi Lawrence Fits With The Dallas Cowboys
-
Miami, FL3 hours ago
Dolphins Select Two Players in The First Round of The 2026 NFL Draft
-
Boston, MA3 hours agoIn-Store Only
-
Denver, CO3 hours agoWolves Back Up the Big Talk With Blowout Win Over Denver in Game 3